Networking architectures have grown increasingly complex in communications environments. In addition, the augmentation of clients or end users wishing to communicate in a network environment has caused many networking configurations and systems to respond by adding elements to accommodate the increase in networking traffic and the individualistic needs of new end users.
As the subscriber base of end users increases, proper routing and efficient management of communication sessions and data flows becomes even more critical. One significant area for any group of end users relates to peering and registration. The problem is particularly troubling in mobile service provider network architectures, where devices can roam from network to network.
Some solutions fail to properly account for all end users. For example, RFC 3455 defines P-Visited-Network-ID and the P-Access-Network-Info headers and associated procedures. However, these apply to SIP-based applications only and, further, are provided with various accompanying drawbacks. In addition, TIA-835-D defines a visited/home network based AAA RADIUS infrastructure and a Carrier-ID RADIUS attribute. This, however, is similarly flawed in that it applies to data (network level) access authentication only and does not allow for different roaming agreements at the application layer.
Thus, designing an effective network response for such roaming users provides a significant challenge to component manufacturers, system administrators, and network operators.